Following introductions by all present, WG chair Mary Bellman reported on the status of the working group and developments over the past two years. At the 2014 UALE conference, no meeting was held due to poor attendance, and a discussion about the future of the WG was postponed as a result. We also had low attendance for some of our sponsored sessions in 2014, including those with international guests. Helen Moss, who was our co-chair at the time, reported on this to the list-serve last year.

Since that time, we have not had any further meetings, nor have WG members suggested any conference calls for the group. Helen stepped down as co-chair given other obligations, and Mary started a new job at Penn State last July.

For the 2015 UALE conference, we did not receive submissions through the WG or have input as a group for the international tracks. We sponsored a film screening of Harvest of Empire immediately following the meeting. Similar to other years, members of our WG have been actively involved in the conference committee for the 2015 conference and have ensured that global issues be integrated into the conference program. Tony Michael has suggested that there be a conference call this summer to clarify the roles of the WGs in conference planning.

The attendees of this meeting affirmed the need to continue the work of the WG as a forum for sharing curriculum, information, and ideas. In particular, people felt that we could better utilize our online space on the UALE website as well as the list-serve. Kent Wong suggested sharing information on supporting unions who are doing DAPA/DACA work. Mary Bellman suggested that rather than conference call meetings with the entire group to report on various activities, instead WG members could use the list-serve to identify members who wish to collaborate on a particular shared interest.

Camilo Viveiros of the Greater Southeastern Massachusetts Labor Council agreed to serve as co-chair for the WG. We still need more people to step up to do this work to keep the group going.

In the final portion of the meeting, Cathy Feingold of the AFL-CIO asked for feedback on the globalization module from Common Sense Economics. She provided some context for the module’s creation, including the challenges of how to make it accessible for users who are not well versed on globalization. Members of the WG agreed to send Cathy more detailed feedback on the module after the meeting.